I have used and supported SPSS since 1975 but due to rulings within the University the Computing Centre / IT Services were not allowed to give statistical advice so I have concentrated on data management and charts and graphs and let what little statistical knowledge I had lapse; so when a user presented me with this problem I’m stuck. Please would someone be kind enough to explain the apparent, to him, discrepancies ? I assume it is to do with rounding during the calculations ?
I want to check how SPSS treats the mode average. I have found it can do this (via the frequencies) option but seems to consistently get it wrong – i.e. it always chooses the one after the mode (so if the mode – most frequent – answer was 0 it returns a 1). Compare the mode below for single authored articles with the frequencies data. I am worried the same error is creeping into the medians. For example, for co-authored articles I can’t see how the median (middle) entry could be 1 when 77% odd of the respondents answered 0.
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the stats, perhaps there is something about the way SPSS is using the data, but I want to make sure there is not a generalised error inflating the stats (which could lead to serious egg on face later!)
Statistics
How many single or co-authored journal articles have you ...
How many of these were published in journals outside of t...
How many co-authored journal publications have you publis...
How many articles did you publish prior to recieving an academic post with research in the contract?
What is the largest number of single and co-authored jour...
N
Valid
240
238
226
239
242
Missing
14
16
28
15
12
Mean
4.66
2.57
1.38
3.85
3.20
Std. Error of Mean
.204
.127
.068
.187
.079
Median
4.00
2.00
1.00
3.00
3.00
Mode
3
1
1
1a
3
Std. Deviation
3.154
1.960
1.019
2.890
1.227
Skewness
2.353
2.178
4.235
1.293
2.241
Std. Error of Skewness
.157
.158
.162
.157
.156
Kurtosis
7.396
6.356
21.849
1.031
10.834
Std. Error of Kurtosis
.313
.314
.322
.314
.312
Minimum
1
1
1
1
1
Maximum
21
12
9
12
12
Sum
1118
612
313
921
775
a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown
How many single or co-authored journal articles have you ...
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
0
12
4.7
5.0
5.0
1
29
11.4
12.1
17.1
2
62
24.4
25.8
42.9
3
51
20.1
21.3
64.2
4
26
10.2
10.8
75.0
5
18
7.1
7.5
82.5
6
17
6.7
7.1
89.6
7
2
.8
.8
90.4
8
7
2.8
2.9
93.3
9
2
.8
.8
94.2
10
2
.8
.8
95.0
11
3
1.2
1.3
96.3
12
3
1.2
1.3
97.5
14
2
.8
.8
98.3
15
1
.4
.4
98.8
16
1
.4
.4
99.2
20
2
.8
.8
100.0
Total
240
94.5
100.0
Missing
System
14
5.5
Total
254
100.0
How many co-authored journal publications have you publis...
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
0
176
69.3
77.9
77.9
1
36
14.2
15.9
93.8
2
6
2.4
2.7
96.5
3
1
.4
.4
96.9
4
3
1.2
1.3
98.2
5
2
.8
.9
99.1
6
1
.4
.4
99.6
8
1
.4
.4
100.0
Total
226
89.0
100.0
Missing
System
28
11.0
Total
254
100.0
Dr Andrew Dilley
Lecturer in History
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/history/staff/details.php?id=a.dilley
The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
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